


The Universe Always Gets Even

by confundere



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Angst, Blood, Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Character Death, F/M, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-02-16 22:34:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13063575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confundere/pseuds/confundere
Summary: Unlike almost everyone in the Mojave, Delilah had never lost someone close to her.  It was a blessing.  Or maybe, just maybe, it was counting up every little wrong she's ever committed to deliver in one fell swoop.Or maybe it was just as she told Craig, no ones getting punished.  This is just the way life is.Regardless, if tragedy had a reason, she figured it better have a damn good one.





	1. I'll Be Seeing You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old enemy makes an appearance, flashbacks ensue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the first thing I've been proud enough of to post on ao3. Don't ask me why I fell for this loser, I don't know either.  
> 

_"Benny baby, please, don't, please." She pulled another stimpack out of her bag._  
_"Hey, pussycat, come on." He pulled it out of her trembling hand and dropped it beside them. "It'll be okay."_

Delilah sat in one of the empty bathtubs, wearing nothing but her underthings and her now-dead lover's ugly, checkered jacket. She's never seen so much blood on it. He always kept it unnaturally clean.  
Her throat felt raw. She didn't know how long she'd been crying for and she didn't hear anyone else wandering about the presidential suite. They probably got tired of her wailing. She took a swig of Cass' moonshine. It burned but then it numbed. She drank more, burning and numbing over and over again until there was only a quarter left in the jar and her head felt heavier than her heart.

_"This is for the family you fucking cunt!" A voice yelled then she heard her name and felt herself being pushed to the floor before the loud pop of a silenced pistol rung through the air._

She started crying again. No tears came this time, she had none left and she felt dehydration racking her body.

_More gunshots, then Benny dropped, lips parted in surprise, his eyes wide. The security guards took down the gunman before he could reload and hit his true target but damage had already been done._

Your fault. She said to herself. Your. Fault. She thought she had cleared out the last of Gomorrah's overlords but she apparently missed one fiercely loyal underling. She took another swig out of the jar. A fiercely loyal underling who rightfully wanted her dead. She after all had been the one to slaughter The Family who ran The Strip's most popular strip club. She remembered looking into one of their prostitutes, Joanna's, eyes, hollow and empty, but hopeful as Delilah agreed to help her escape with her lover.

_His head rested in her lap as she administered Med-Ex, and stimpack after stimpack, and held a table cloth to the unrelenting tide of blood pooling out of the bullet holes. Bullet holes that were meant for her._  
_"Lilah, baby-"_  
_"Sh, sh." she hushed. "It'll be okay, you're gonna be okay."_  
_"Keep Vegas swinging for me okay?" He smiled weakly. "Okay, baby?"_  
_"Don't, don't you dare say that like you are dying, you are not dying, okay?"_  
_"I love you." he said softly._  
_Delilah grew frantic, unable to stem the blood flowing out his wounds. "Benny, baby, please. I love you too. Arcade will be here right away just hang on."_  
_His hand felt like lead as he lifted it and cupped her cheek, leaving a bloody hand print. He always knew this woman was gonna be the death of him, one way or another. Thing is, he didn't regret it one bit staring into those baby blues of hers. He just didn't like how grief was contorting her pretty features._  
_"Just hang on okay?"_  
_He nodded as she pressed her forehead to his. This wasn't the worst way to go, he thought._

The scene kept playing over and over in her head. She had been crazy to think Arcade could've done anymore for him than she already had. He said it himself, he was a researcher, not a medical doctor and he had already taught her everything he knew anyways. It was also crazy to think that he would even get there before Benny bled out. She had always been plenty good at crazy, falling for the man who shot her in the head and helping him escape the legion. She told herself it was because she was always weak for a pretty face. She told herself it was because he was a good lay. She told herself it was because the legion wanted him dead, and she wasn't going to let the legion get anything. She told herself a lot of things, a lot of the time. Not all of them were true however. The truth, was that she really was weak for a pretty face, and that against her better judgment, she just didn't want him dead.

_"Now we're even, huh pussycat?"_

Now she understood Craig's comments about “life having a way of punishing you for the mistakes you make”. She just didn't know why she had to be collateral damage. Killing slavers, whether they be legion, pimps or otherwise, shouldn't be a crime. Maybe it was leaving her parents. Or maybe not helping any of her girls escape the pimp-house, she rectified that with Joanna however. Maybe it was the slaves back at The Fort who got caught in the crossfire as she made the mad dash to the docks. Delilah felt nauseated, but couldn't pinpoint whether it was from all the moonshine or the trauma. She decided it didn't really matter.

_Arcade ran in, summoned by one of her securitrons. He was gone by then already, Delilah sobbing into Benny’s chest as Swank, his second in command and the rest of the casinos bodyguards stood about solemnly._  
_"Oh, Delilah." Arcade dropped his medical bag and knelt down beside her, expression mournful. "I am so, so incredibly sorry."_  
_She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face, then laid her head on his chest again._  
_"If there's anything I can do, just say the word."_  
_She shook her head. It was too late._  
_Swank walked up with his hands in his pockets, he looked almost as lost as she did._  
_"I'll handle the funeral arrangements, sweetheart. Let me take it from here."_  
_"No, no, no." She held him tighter._  
_Arcade placed his hand on her shoulder. "Delilah, he's gone."_  
_She started sobbing again._

When they finally managed to pull him away from his body all she remembered was taking his jacket and slipping over her bare shoulders. She felt cold, not from the slinky dress she was wearing. Arcade had helped her to the Lucky 38 presidential suite. She wordlessly pulled a jar of moonshine from the fridge, walked into the last bathroom stall, stripped off the dress she was wearing and climbed into the bathtub.

_They had all come in to try and talk to her. Arcade first, then Veronica, then Cass. They couldn't get through, couldn't stop the almost feral cries that found their way past her teeth. Maybe Craig could but he had rejoined the NCR a year ago and the last time he visited was six months ago. She was inconsolable. Eventually they all gave up and left to the cocktail lounge, Veronica the most reluctantly._

She’d always been a wanderer. Maybe this was the universes way of cutting her only tie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be seeing you  
> In all the old familiar places  
> That this heart of mine embraces  
> All day and through
> 
> I'll find you in the morning sun  
> And when the night is new  
> I'll be looking at the moon  
> But I'll be seeing you  
> ***  
> I'm planning more for this! There will be more Benny next chapter, I promise! <3  
> How kind of me to start the fic with killing off the main love interest. Sorry, I like causing myself pain.  
> Thanks for reading! (I don't have a beta so forgive any typos).
> 
> Chapter Song: Billie Holiday - I'll Be Seeing You  
> Song while writing: The Sound - Matt Epp feat Faouzia


	2. I've Got You Under My Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benny whines. Delilah is a bleeding heart. The pair get into a spot of trouble. The chapter takes place many months prior to The Battle of Hoover Dam II.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried so not to give in  
> I said to myself, this affair it never will go so well  
> But why should I try to resist when, baby, I know damn well  
> That I've got you under my skin

“I can’t believe,” Benny huffed as he followed behind Delilah, “You had me walk four fucking days out of the way because some dumb kid got all goo-goo eyed over some broad he saw through a telescope.”

“Ah, young love.” Delilah mused.

The desert sun was setting, sending a brilliant cascade of red and yellows across the sky. She couldn’t help her bleeding heart but to think about Jack and Janet watching the same sunset. It was brave of Janet to go there, not knowing if she’d be accepted even after she got past the bombs. Of course, there was the possibility they wouldn’t even like each other as time went on and the initial puppy-love began to fade. But what’s life without risk?

Delilah would’ve done the same thing if she was living under the thumb of McLafferty; especially after knowing she destroyed Cass’ caravan. She could’ve shot her right then and there but she hoped the higher-ups would sniff out the corruption. Give it a couple years for the hammer to drop. If not, Delilah was sure Cass would be up for plan B. 

Benny rolled his eyes and reloaded Maria. “We walked that trek from Nellis to Caravan Company four times. Maybe more. I think I have twice as many blisters as I have toes.”

“And? We couldn’t just send her on her way without making sure she was safe.”

“Why not? We were fine.”

“Because they trust me, you’d be dead if I wasn’t there.” He was almost dead anyway with the way he strutted around the base like he owned it. Thank god for her good rep. 

“You still had to slip through in the first place.”

She was reminded of Boone’s wide-eyed terror and the ringing in their ears that didn’t let up for a fucking week. “True. But why subject the poor girl to that?” 

“Because natural selection, Baby. If the broad did get herself killed we’d be doing them a favour. They have enough loony in their gene pool. God knows how inbred those crazies are already.”

“And God forbid caring about other people.” She mumbled and turned around so she was walking backwards. “Look, I decided to keep some bad in the wasteland. Gotta round it out with some good, y’know?”

“Ha, ha, very funny.” 

“Wasn’t talking about you.”

“Sure, doll.”

Delilah laughed and turned back around. “You didn’t have to keep following me around.”

“How could I beat a view like this?” Benny whistled. 

She flashed him a cheeky grin over her shoulder noticing his eyes on her denim clad ass. “Oh, that’s why you always take up the rear. Well, if the view ever loses its luster you can go anytime.”

“Aw, baby, and I was so convinced you and I were partners in crime. C’mon sweetheart, admit it, it would kill you if I left.”

“Or maybe I need to keep you out of trouble.”

“You’re all the trouble I need.” He said with a wink.

Delilah scoffed and resumed her watch over the Mojave. The sun was setting and she knew that as pretty as the night was, it was equally deadly. They needed to be careful.

 

“Hey. Baby-”

“Wait, shut up a second.” Benny went to protest but Delilah promptly clapped a hand over his mouth and he glared at her in response.  They had been creeping through the rocks on the way to Vault 22.  Night had fallen over the wasteland, and with the setting of the sun came the overabundance of creatures that wanted to rip your throat out.  She heard a faint buzzing in the distance and frowned when she recognized the sound. Cazador’s. In levels of danger Delilah always put an angry swarm just under a deathclaw for first place. Her and her companions always went through a ridiculous amount of anti-venom after almost every tangle with them. Though her and Craig always tried to pick them off from a distance, they were quick, and always seemed to know where they were getting hit from.  And then there was Veronica. Running headlong into the swarm to beat them to death with her power fist. Effective, but required more anti-venom and stimpacks than Delilah liked. She hadn’t encountered them with Benny yet but she wasn’t anymore worried than when she was with anyone else.  He was well trained and only mildly rusty from his cushy lifestyle on The Strip.

Delilah removed her hand from his face. “Do you hear that?” she whispered.

Benny paused, eyes shifting like he was trying to listen with them, then nodded and cocked his gun.

“How much anti-venom do we have?” she asked.

Benny shrugged. “Not much.”

“Shit.”

She peered up above the rocks and saw a flash of orange not even sixty paces away from her.

“Double shit.” She kneeled down again.

“We can take them. It’s not like we’re out of the ingredients to make anti-venom.” 

“We’ve been walking for two days now. I’m sick from radiation, all we’ve had to eat is Blamco mac n’ cheese and the only water we’ve had to drink was dirty water from that abandoned house.” Delilah laid out. “We’re not exactly in peak condition.”

“Speak for yourself, doll.” He said with a smile. “Listen, they’re in the way. We can’t go around them, they’ll see us. We also can’t camp here ‘til day break.”

Delilah scowled but made sure her holo-rifle was fully loaded with cells. “I hate when you’re right.”

Benny winked. “I know, baby.”

 

Fighting cazadors was always a nightmare especially at night. She never remembered to take cateye, not that she ever really wanted to. She had enough chems, specifically those disgusting martinis back at the Sierra Madre, to last a lifetime. They went through the motions, picking them off one by one with Benny shooting them in the wings to cripple and Delilah trying to finish them off before they could reach the two. 

“Mine’s bigger.” Delilah said with a laugh as she reloaded her rifle. 

“I thought it was how you used it that mattered, pussycat.” Benny said aiming at a cazador and unloading his revolver into it. The bug dropped and he reloaded _Maria_ with a flourish.

__

__

It was easy, too easy, to slip into comfort with Benny around. She had let her guard down enough for a young cazador to fly in and sink its stinger into her thigh. She yelped and struck it down with the butt of her rifle but not before she felt her vision blurring at the edges. She couldn’t look at the wound, not yet, not while there was still a few more to go.

Benny had gotten stung too. There was a tear in his armor and from what she could see the veins around it were turning sickly shades of green and blue.

Delilah knelt down on the ground for further stability. They just needed to get the last few.

One more minute passed and the cazadors were dead, ground littered with carcasses and piles of ash. Delilah yanked the stinger out of her leg and ripped through her pack trying to get to the anti-venom and her expression dropped at the sight. One bottle left.

“Shit.”

“What is it?” he asked, slightly breathless from the fight.

She wordlessly held up the bottle.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right. Shit.”

Delilah leaned up against one of the rocks, legs stretched out in front of her and stared at the little bottle. “What was that about making more?”

Benny grabbed the bag from her and started rifling through it for the ingredients, nightstalker blood and radscorpian glands.

“Benny.”

“Hm?”

“You should use the anti-venom if you’re going to brew more.”

“I’m platinum, baby. Don’t you worry your pretty little head.”

“I’m not worried. Your arm looks bad is all. Last time I checked limbs were pretty important.”

“Sure you’re not.” He replied, voice dripping with sarcasm but held his hand up all the same. Delilah threw the bottle and he plucked it out of the air and pulled the cork out with a pop.  Benny  tipped the contents into his mouth with a grimace. “God, that shit goes down worse than fermented brahmin piss.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“No, but I’ve heard some initiation stories.”

“And here I thought you were the big boss man of The Chairmen.” She teased.

“That was before my time.” He laughed.

Benny got the campfire started and by then colour was returning to his skin. She didn’t realize how pale he was before the anti-venom kicked in.

It was getting hard to keep her head up. She felt consciousness slipping away from her and she felt cold despite the campfire. Sleep was tempting and rocks were never more comfortable than when you shouldn’t be succumbing to sleep.

“Lily-baby.” She felt a rough hand on her cheek. “Hang in there, brew’s almost done.”

She opened her eyes to honey-brown irises looking her over.

“Yikes, you look ghoulish.”

“That’s not very nice.” She slurred as Benny went back to the pot. Two minutes later there were fingers under her chin tilting her face up.

“Open up.”

Delilah was too weak to argue so she did so and the familiar bitter taste of anti-venom slid past her lips.

“Ugh, brahmin piss.”

He laughed. “I promise you I’m not that mean.”

“You’re pretty mean. And a liar.”

“Hey, hey, is that anyway to talk to someone who just saved your life.

“The point still stands. And I’m not feeling any better so there’s a possibility it was brahmin piss.”

“You sure are talking a lot for someone who isn’t feeling any better.”

“… maybe a little.” She mumbled. She was feeling a little better, but not by much. Her entire body felt like gravity was acting on it tenfold and her words were still coming out like her mouth was filled with marbles. The only movement she felt she was capable of were the violent shivers racking her body. She looked down at her leg. The wound was still oozing black-yellow bile. 

“Benny, I don’t think it’s working. Are you sure you did it right?”

He was indignant. “Of course I did, this isn’t even the tenth time I’ve made anti-venom.”

“Then something is wrong!”

He pressed his fingers to her neck to check her pulse. Something shiny caught his eye and his eyes flickered down to the chain hanging from her neck and the priceless metal circle fastened to it. Quickly, but not quickly enough not for her to notice.

Delilah had grown to trust him despite her denial. Not much, but enough to know he had her back in a fight and that she could count on him to keep her alive. He owed her that much. But that impulsive little glance was enough to undo what little faith she had in the first place.

Her expression shifted from panicked to stony in an instant. Damn her perceptiveness, he thought.

“I should have known.” She snarled, words dripping with venom.

“Your heart is pounding, and we still haven’t cleaned your leg up.” 

“You can drop the act now.”

“I’m not acting Lily, this is serious.”

“Don’t fucking call me Lily, you won.”

Benny looked her dead in the eyes. “Won what exactly, baby?”

She was tired of games, she didn’t think she was gonna die, but she definitely couldn’t move before the venom passed through her system. Benny was telling the truth, he had done it right, exactly as he intended. Potent enough to save her life, not potent enough to bring her back to her feet. He could rip the damn chain right off her neck and leave and she wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.

… So she beat him to it.

Delilah pulled the chip from her neck and dangled it in his face. “Here.”

“What are you doing?” a look of almost-genuine confusion washed over his face. She wasn’t going to be fooled again.

“Just take it.”

He lowered her fist down. “No.”

“Take. The fucking. Chip. Benny.”

“Delilah, baby, you’re delirious. You should probably sleep it off.”

He was patronizing her, and it just was making her angrier. “No, I will not sleep. You are going to take the chip and walk off with it and I’m gonna watch you do it!”

Benny let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to the bag to grab a med-pack. Something hit the back of his leg and he turned around to look at it. The platinum chip laid unceremoniously in the dirt behind him.

“You were waiting for my guard to be down. Admit it.” Delilah growled. 

He threw his hands up. “Baby, I swear on the old lady’s grave I wasn’t.”

She was furious and tired; enormously pissed off that he had beaten her. He had gotten her guard down, he had won. She tried to move but nothing was obeying properly and Delilah felt trapped in her own body. 

“Trust me.”

“No.” She spat.

“Sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

“Fuck you.”

Benny picked up the chip and pocketed it before returning with bandages and a bottle of vodka.

Delilah tried to squirm away but he held her leg down. It was a weak attempt anyway, she thought. He wiped the wound down with vodka and Delilah gasped in pain.

“I know, I know.” He said and wrapped her leg up. “Now, I’m going to sit right here until you stop acting like a child.”

The burning pain of the alcohol took the last bit of energy she had out of her and she spent the last minute of consciousness she had glaring daggers at him.

He had the chip. As soon as she was asleep he would leave with it and whatever else he wanted to take. If she lasted through the night… well, lets just say her ‘spirit of forgiveness’ was all used up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't you know, little fool, you never can win  
> Use your mentality, wake up to reality  
> But each time I do, just the thought of you  
> Makes me stop before I begin  
> Because I've got you under my skin  
> ***  
> Oh Benny. Benny, Benny, Benny.  
> Once a fink, always a fink.  
> Right?  
> A leopard can't change his spots. ~~Or checkers ~~~~~~  
> This has been written for like 2 weeks and I couldn't figure out whether I wanted it to end on a cliff hanger or not.  
>  No beta's we proofread 2 days after like men. Also can I just say formatting is a nightmare? One day I'll learn how to indent.  
> The story will (should) continue linearly from this point.  
> Chapter Song: I've Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra


End file.
